This proposal seeks financial support to partially underwrite the travel expenses of US academic faculty attending the XI International Conference on Fluidization, scheduled for May 1-8, 2004, in Ischia, Italy. The full title of the conference is XI International Conference on Fluidization: Present and Future for Fluidization Engineering. It is the latest in a premier series of conferences dealing with technologies for handling and processing of solid particulates, dating back to 1975. The Conference is sponsored by Engineering Conferences International (EGI), a not-for-profit successor program to the United Engineering Foundation Conferences Program.
Intellectual Merit
The focus of the Conference is on fluidization as a technology to accomplish multiphase contacting and reactions in the materials, process, pharmaceutical and energy industries. The phenomenon of fluidizing solid particles with gases and/or liquids is complicated by the many different flow regimes that are found to occur. Momentum, mass, and energy interactions between particles, between particles and fluid, and with boundary surfaces are complex and not well understood. The spectrum of subjects at the Conference will range from fundamentals of multiphase physics and chemistry to applications in novel, emerging and classic technologies.
Impact
Fluidization and particle processing is an engineering technology of importance to industries ranging from the classic (chemical, petrochemical, energy, etc.) to the new and advancing (biological, pharmaceutical, materials, etc.). U.S. manufacturing processes involving the handling of particles and powders have been estimated to rarely reach more than 60 percent of their design capacity, in contrast to over 95 percent capacity for processes that do not handle particles. Motivated by the combination of wide-application and unresolved scientific/technical issues, fluidization is actively pursued as a field of fundamental research and applied development. In many areas of this technology, major thrusts are being advanced in other nations, above and beyond the level of effort in USA. It is important to both academic and industrial segments of America, to stay cognizant of the most recent advances and to participate in future developments in this field.
Participation of US faculty in this conference will clearly enhance their ability to incorporate the newest advances of particle technology in curriculums. In selection of faculty to participate in this grant, effort will be made to actively include women and under-represented minorities. The papers of this Conference will join the ranks of benchmark books that have resulted from prior conferences of this series, which will be of direct value to practicing engineers and scientists.
